1&1 Towers, a subsidiary of German operator 1&1 AG, and Eubanet have signed an agreement to acquire up to 7,500 new 5G antenna sites.

“The direct cooperation with a very experienced acquisition partner is a further step with which we will achieve the expansion goals for our new OpenRAN mobile network,” said Ralph Dommermuth, head of 1&1 AG.

To achieve this goal, 1&1 already has thousands of existing locations available for the installation of 5G antennas through cooperation with Vantage Towers AG and American Towers Corporation. In addition, German company GfTD is also building new antenna sites for 1&1.

Eubanet is a German consulting and service company, whose service portfolio includes in particular the analysis and acquisition of suitable locations for new radio systems. “We are pleased that we can make an important contribution to the further expansion of the mobile communications infrastructure in Germany by identifying locations and concluding rental agreements on behalf of 1&1. By setting up a new unit for 1&1 with additional locations and new hires, we are strengthening our position in the market and creating new resources,” says Axel Pfeffer, managing director at Eubanet.

As part of the commitments included in the license that the telco obtained in 2019 for the provision of mobile services, 1&1 is obliged to deploy at least 1,000 base stations this year. The 1&1 network must reach at least 25% of German households by the end of 2025 and at least 50% by end-2030, as part of those commitments.

1&1 had previously said that it plans to launch 5G mobile services in the summer of 2023. The telco also expects to initially offer 5G services via Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technology.

In August, 1&1 completed the first live test in its new 5G network. In the tests, 1&1 said that it achieved speeds of over 1 Gbps and stable data transfers of around 8 terabytes per customer within 24 hours.

1&1 had selected Japanese company Rakuten Group to design, build and operate a fully virtualized mobile network based O-RAN technology.

In August 2021, 1&1 and Rakuten Group announced a long-term partnership to build the former’s mobile network in Germany. Through this deal, Rakuten became the general contractor for the 1&1 mobile network.

Specifically, Rakuten will take over the build of the active network equipment and will also be responsible for the overall performance of the 1&1 mobile network. The German telco will have access to the Rakuten Communications Platform (RCP) stack of access, core, cloud and operations solutions as well as to its partner network.